*is never not thinking about Kamen Rider*

Wow. The patience, kindness and calm communication skills. Outstanding.

From raindovemodel

This made me cry. I wish all situations could be handled as perfectly as this

I just want to point out the core of what the diffuser did in this conversation

They recognized that the mother was also expressing a vulnerable truth about herself - that she felt like a bad mother because her child was expressing gender feelings she wasn’t equipped to help with - and met her where she was, a concerned parent with limited information - to point her where she should be heading, research and resources.

Im going to make more of an effort to stop reflexively pushing people away when they express biases and make more of an effort to hear the underlying fears when i can

“it’s easier to love ourselves when we feel loved as ourselves”

damn that is so  powerful though

God this always makes me tear up ahaha…

Since joining Tumblr, I’ve met a lot of young queer people. Look, I’m a bisexual man in a gay relationship, and I’m approaching 30. I was still a kid when Matthew Shepard’s story was being covered on the news. I remember thinking, “I better keep my mouth shut about these feelings I’m having.”

And then I met Dominic when I was 12, and people could see how in love we were. And we got the shit beat out of us. The year I met him, some kids in the grade above me held me down against the bleachers in our gym and stomped on my hand until my fingers broke. Instead of sending me to the nurse, the teacher sent me to the assistant principal to explain the situation. She asked why the kids had beat me up. I said, “They were calling me gay.”

Her response was, “Well, are you?”

My, “I don’t know,” earned a call to my parents, and I was outed. Efforts were made to keep me from seeing Dom. Throughout high school, Dom’s stepmother intensified these efforts. He slept in the basement of the house. Although he was an incredibly talented student, he was prohibited from participating in any extracurriculars. He suffered a lot of physical abuse during those years.

The day he turned 18, he packed up everything he had and walked to my house, and we’ve lived together ever since. Things are better, but they’re not perfect. I’ve had trucks pull up next to me at stoplights and, seeing the pride sticker on my car, through old drinks and garbage into my window. I no longer speak to my dad’s side of the family. I haven’t been to see them for Christmas or Thanksgiving in years. One of my uncles had cornered me at Thanksgiving when I was 17 and said, “I’m not going to judge you, but I’d be happy to break your neck so God can do the judging a little sooner.”

I joined a support group for trans and intersex people. When I joined, 40 people attended regularly. Within the year, the group was half the size it had been. Some couldn’t make it anymore, because they were staying at the shelter, where their stay hinged on them agreeing to instead to attend homophobic sermons. Some were put in correctional therapy. Five of them died. Three of those, I didn’t know, but I knew Alex, the 19 year old who was fag-dragged in Kentucky and died a day later in the hospital, and I knew Stephanie, who went home to Alabama to care for her mom in hospice and was beaten to death with a baseball bat by her mom’s boyfriend.

Tumblr is not reality. The dynamic here does not reflect the dynamic out there. Here’s the part where I finally make a point, and it might be extremely unpopular - but guys, value your allies. Value each other. We are met with enough hate in our daily lives to enter an online safe-space and meet more hate from our own, over petty things. Don’t go after one another over every little thing you find problematic.

Learn to see nuance. Maybe the word “queer” bothers you, and you see a gay man using it as an umbrella term. Maybe someone called a trans man a trans woman because they’re confused about terminology, but the post where they did it was voicing support for the trans community. Maybe someone is just asking a question, wanting to learn more. Stop. Attacking. These. People.

Allies are being driven away. Members of our own community are being ostracized. Others are feeling nervous and estranged, and it’s largely because of places like Tumblr, where the social justice movement is quickly becoming violent and radical. I am begging you, stop nitpicking “problematic” things and start directing your efforts to create real change. When it comes to comes to your allies, forget the “social justice warrior” mentality and put down your torch. Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving. And I’m certainly not saying that your anger doesn’t have a good place - when you are met with bigots on the street, congress members who want to pass hateful laws, violent protesters, abusive parents, prejudiced teachers, that is when you need to be a warrior. That’s when it counts. In the real world. When you have the opportunity to protect people from real harm. Attacking your would-be allies via anonymous asks is just going to lose us ground in the long run. And we don’t have time for that, not when trans women of color are being murdered every day, not when states are still fighting against marriage equality, not when there are politicians in office who believe that trans people are possessed by demons, not when we’ve just lost 50 brothers and sisters to one gunman, not when the media won’t even admit that the attack was homophobic.

Please step back. Look at the big picture. Look at where we are, globally. Don’t just log on to your safe space and attack your allies over small missteps. That’s like washing the dishes in a house that’s on fire, kids. Let’s fight on the battlefield, and when we come home to each other, let’s just focus on bandaging up our wounds so we can go out and win the war.

Signal boost to this unbelievably important message.

I’d reblog this a thousand times if I could.

Stop attacking allies. Educate. Not hate. 

This is incredibly important. Please read!

Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving.

Gonna Reblog this every time

I would argue on one point: “Tumblr is not reality.”

It would be more accurate to say “Tumblr is not the entirety of reality.”

Because, and I want to stress this, Tumblr is, in fact, real. It has the capacity to help, and it has the capacity to hurt. Most of the people that have been driven off didn’t leave because they just weren’t having fun anymore, they left because they were being hurt and chose not to continue being hurt.

Furthermore, Tumblr does have an impact on non-Tumblr reality. I’m not saying it’s a Massive Impact, but yeah, the way people get treated on Tumblr can and does affect how they behave outside of Tumblr.

i love gaboon vipers why do they move like that

me when im walking

@catadromously how could you leave this important comment in the tags etc.

That’s the truest thing about this creature that anyone has said, ever

No, but seriously. If whenever you get up from wherever you start to feel faint, get palpitations, get numb, get nauseous, get light-headed and/or literally feel your blood drop to your feet, check the symptoms of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.

Also add more salt to your diet lol. With or without the POTS unless you have hypertension in which case I’d be more cautious.

Actually, it’s not just that you can reblog this. I want people to reblog this.

My poor mom went by years without knowing why the fuck she was having all these debilitating symptoms.

All it took was me making her add some more salt to her diet and have an isotonic drink daily and she IMMEDIATELY (as in, less than an hour) stopped feeling faint whenever she got up from kneeling down and her hair is slowly falling off less and less.

She used to need at least 5 minutes to recover from kneeling down and now she kneels down and stands up like it’s nothing. Even her joint pain from EDS and brain fog have improved tremendously and she has much more energy.

It’s not normal to always get dizzy when you kneel down and then get up, or when you get up from bed or a chair.

It’s not normal for any of that to make you light-headed or nauseous, or get blurry vision, headaches or palpitations.

It’s not normal for your body to suck at regulating its temperature and for your heart rate to go insane if you’re just mildly stressed.

It’s not normal to want to be active and “productive” but be unable to get your body to do anything so you just lay there, or if you manage to get anything done, you’ll need a whole week to recover.

It’s not normal to be tremendously tired all the time no matter how much you rest and sleep, even if people think you’re just “lazy”.

I’m pointing all these things out as abnormal because chronically ill people tend to not realize that our symptoms are symptoms.

Our individual bodies are the only bodies we’ve experienced and since most of us don’t look any different from others and aren’t taken seriously when we complain of any ailment, we assume our symptoms happen to everyone. They do not.

People with no physical conditions (at least not impairing ones such as being a bit short-sighted) do not have their bodies make life difficult for them, unless they’re temporarily ill. But we are ill ALL the time.

Take yourself seriously. Doctors and healthy people already don’t, so if you don’t take yourself seriously, who will?

If your body is making life difficult for you, there’s probably something going on with it, and if it persists and nothing makes it go away, it may be a chronic illness.

POTS can develop in previous healthy people after a Covid infection. If you have had Covid recently or know someone who has, please keep this in mind.

I call that altitude sickness, is it not normal that everything goes fuzzy when you stand up? Like goes dark at the corners of your vision?

Nope, not normal at all.

I added this in the tags at first but i think its important enough for people to see. if you have these symptoms, please google ‘poor man’s tilt table test’! it’s a very simple way to screen for POTS at home, that requires no equipment other than a notes app or something to write with.

It’s ideal to take this to a doctor so you can rule out other conditions that present similarly and get assessed for illnesses that are often co-morbid with POTS but if you don’t have access to a doctor, you can still try some typical POTS lifestyle changes. Electrolyte drinks, high-salt diet, compression socks/tights, etc etc.

Though I’m a POTS patient, I’m not an expert. There’s lots to read if you do your own research online and also things like forums and support groups because a lot of times the most helpful advice is from people living with the same condition 🙂

Feeling every so slightly called out here.

What if it, like, only happens occasionaly or not enough to affect me?

Can still be POTS or another form of orthostatic intolerance. Speaking as someone who went through most of their life not knowing they had POTS, can attest that sometimes you don’t know how heavily a condition is affecting you until you’re told or accept that you have it, especially if you don’t know too much about it at first.

also, not everyone gets lightheaded. there’s pots that makes your blood pressure go up, some that makes it go down, and some that doesn’t change it. i just have a really fast heartrate that wont go down and makes me feel like ive just done a sprint

my blood really wants to go to my legs when im standing, but my leg muscles will help pump it back up. that’s why ill walk for miles and feel fine, but standing in line (supposedly less exertion) is torture and i feel like ill fall over or wither away from the exertion. that’s NOT NORMAL. try knee-high compression socks if you can, in addition to the advice above.

i get this kind they’re pretty thin and i can handle them even in the summer and even with my sensory issues

also showers are often difficult with pots and other kinds of dysautonomia. try a shower chair!!!! try a cooler water temperature!!! (i know i know but trust me) shave your head and shower less often if ur me :/// it’s okay to use assistive devices even when nobody’s told you to. even if you don’t “need” it.

it’s especially common for people with eds, so if your joints are extra bendy… 👀

i’m not sure if this will be beneficial to anyone, but in case it might be: i was diagnosed with POTS after seeing a cardiologist and getting a tilt-table test. (which was absolutely miserable for me, as i had undiagnosed fibromyalgia and the blood pressure cuff constantly tightening on my arm for 20 minutes became excruciating.)

after i was diagnosed, my cardiologist put me on an SSRI, which he said would treat a mechanism in my brain that caused the low blood pressure (it’s been 10+ years, i can’t remember exactly what he said), and a beta blocker called nadolol to treat the tachycardia.

(he also tried putting me on another drug called midodrine, but i had a negative reaction that caused me to feel like i was freezing the same time as i was sweating because i was wrapped in blankets in the middle of the summer.)

after getting stabilized on those meds, my POTS has gotten significantly better. i still occasionally get a bit woozy from standing up too fast, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was before. i still have a few dysautonomia-type symptoms, such as wonky stomach acid, but overall those symptoms have improved.

i don’t see that cardiologist anymore because he kept pushing me to lose weight and exercise more than i could tolerate, so it’s possible POTS treatment has changed/progressed since then, but i wanted to share what’s helped me in case anyone wants to bring it up with their doctor(s).

remember to take your symptoms seriously and be your own advocate. if you know something is wrong, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.

not huge on anime and i’ve never heard a vocaloid song in its entirety but every time i see miku i’m like yeah baby it’s miku that’s my friend miku

By all means let ur kids dress up however they want, fuck the homophobes who say that letting ur five year old son where a dress is the "gay agenda" or "degeneracy" or whatever, I think it's really healthy to let kids choose how they wanna express themselves

BUT HOLY FUCK! CAN YOU NOT FILM THEM AND PUT EM ONLINE???

It's not a fucking heartwarming moment omg its super voyeuristic to put your fucking five year old in the position of being exposed to homophobic judgements online it's fucking disgusting why am I seeing videos of someone filming their very young children experimenting with gender expression? Why are you people sharing that? It's using your kid for clout while also exposing them to extremely harsh criticism from bigots, it really is not charming at all.

I really hope this Tik Tok user and OP and anyone sharing this video really sincerely reflect on the privacy of children and how fucking dangerous of a position this is to put a kid in. Letting their face go viral and get shared around every single social media site as a stand in for your progressivism when they're not anywhere near old enough to consent to that exposure or that position. This isn't "letting children express themselves", it's exploiting a child for clicks dressed up in progressive language.

For the record when my lil brother was a toddler he wanted to be a fairy for Halloween and my mom let him. You know where we have photos of that? In our fucking family photo album. Not online for everyone in the world to see and judge but in a book in our house. You wanna talk about letting kids express themselves go ahead, talk about it, talk abt ur experiences as an lgbt positive parent; but do not put their names and faces online. It's fucking weird man.

So this post has gotten rather popular without anyone seeing some really relevant follow up details.

The tiktok account posting this, "the mcleod fam" is not a random family posting a feel good video that happened to go viral. It is a single woman who has made an internet career for herself by adopting disabled and neurodivergent children and posting about them on tiktok, instagram, and YouTube.

She does this for ad revenue, using her children, and specifically her children's gender identities, to advertise products and gain clicks. Her posts show the intimate details of her children's lives, discussing in great detail their medical issues, psychiatry process and exploration of identity. It's blatantly exploitative, deeply invasive, and really disturbing to look into.

I am adding this onto this post because I don't want anyone to think this Tiktok user is just a parent who did not know any better. I personally believe that using your children's private lives to gain money and attention is abusive.

Here is one of the pictures on her Instagram that shows how she uses her children's identities to sell products.

I strongly encourage you to block her on insta and tiktok and continue the conversation about how children are exploited on the internet. Do not give ppl like this a platform, stop sharing images of children online. They deserve their privacy and a chance to grow up outside the scrutiny of millions of people.

important!!!

This was explained in a wonderful way

Resource is from victoriaalxndr on Twitter!

This is amazing. Thank you OP. Keep educating yourself.

sorry but this is absolutely sending me

This picture he posted after the video makes it even better

Koffing! 🔮💕

This Koffing may look tasty, but I don't recommend eating it! 🙅

Thank you Canada that is a great name

I’M FREAKING CRYING I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT WAS THE INSPIRATION

Guy who has only ever seen 2006 animated movie “Over the Hedge” watching a new natural phenomena develop:

@ my young followers, i have nothing against you! but to be real, make sure you are thinking about how you are spending your time! youre not going to enjoy it when youre 25 and looking back at your childhood and seeing that you wasted it getting into kin drama and other such bs.

check on yourself every now and then and if coming onto this site has become a chore instead of a nice time where you can look at pics of stuff you like and relax, either block/unfollow the people bringing you down or LEAVE!!!! THIS!!!!! SITE!!!!! your time and mental health are more important than a blog! and this is applicable to everyone, not just minors